Page 203 - FINAL_The Sixteen Coverage Book 40th Anniversary Year
P. 203
19 August 2019
Music reviews: SCO: MacMillan's
Symphony No 5 | BBC SSO: A Scotch
Bestiary, Usher Hall, Edinburgh
Sir James MacMillan. Picture: EIF
KEN WALTON
SCO: MacMillan's Symphony No 5, Usher Hall * * * *
BBC SSO: A Scotch Bestiary, Usher Hall * * * *
One composer dominated Saturday’s Festival music programme: James MacMillan. He turned 60
this summer and the EIF has been marking that milestone with key performances of his music,
none more eagerly anticipated than these two back-to-back orchestral concerts.
One featured the BBC SSO, under Portuguese conductor Joana Carneiro, in two Scottish
premieres, including MacMillan’s viciously satirical A Scotch Bestiary, scored for organ and
orchestra, written in 2004 for the inauguration of the new organ in Walt Disney Hall in Los
Angeles.
The other, with the resplendent combined forces of the SCO, crack choral group The Sixteen and
larger choir of alumni from its training programme Genesis Sixteen, culminated in the world
premiere of MacMillan’s highly-anticipated Fifth Symphony.
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